Discord of the Stars
by Maxwell Cross
Summary: They thought the Bydo were the only threat they would ever face, now a fleet of ships from the Earth Hegemony face a Universe where Earth is enslaved by a horde of aliens known as the Ur-Quan...


*Author Foreword*

Howdy there folks!

Well, I'm not quite sure how to start this off so I guess I'll just be blunt. I love Star Control II, I also love R-Type and thus I have decided to create a cross-over! Before I go any further, I DO NOT own Star Control, R-Type Final, R-Type Command of Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria. Those wonderful games are owned by Accolade, Irem and Square-Enix. I'm simply using them to make a wonderful story, not money so please don't sue me! *sweatdrop* However the following OC's are mine. Mark Hudson, Talan Rhodes, Amy Marshall, Drake Nessin, and Leo Cana. The of the names Alicia, Lenneth, Silmeria, and Hrist are inspired by playing VP2: Silmeria. *thinks* Ok, I believe that's all of them, the other character names were made up on the spot so they're fair game. *laugh*

Well, I suppose I should get on with it, eh?

*Foreword end*

Captain Mark Hudson stood on the bridge of his ship, the UFBS-010 "Vale", a battleship built for one thing. Battle. And that was one thing it had seen plenty of these past three months. A small sigh escaped the captain's lips as he glanced around the two level bridge to the stars beyond. He was only 28 years old, the youngest to ever gain the rank of captain and be given command of a fleet, but he looked much older from the worry the etched his face. Short black hair, somewhat untidy, hid some of the lines on his forehead but did nothing for the lines around his soft blue eyes. The laugh lines around his mouth added almost ten years to him though he had little to laugh about these days. Not for the first time, he glanced at the console next to his chair which would display any information he wanted at a moment's notice. Currently it held the report on the fleet status which seemed to be changed every few days. He sat down and reviewed it for the seventh time that day, adding and editing comments in italic print.

3rd Fleet: Group 2, 4th Division

Ship Count: 10 ( 1x UFBS-010 Heimdal, 2x UFHC-007 Vanargand, 4x UFDD-02 Nidhogg, 3x UFCS-05 Jormungand)

Fleet Commander: Mark Hudson

Ship Name: "Vale"

Type: Heimdal Battleship (Flagship)

Captain: Mark Hudson

Crew: 742 (standard) 712 (current)

Fighter Compliment: 15 (3 Squadrons) 3 Modules

Status: Suffered moderate damage outside Epsilon Comelopardalis and Delta Vulpeculae. _Good thing the shields held up as long as they did or we might be the ones being towed..._

Squad I: "Phantom"

Commander: Talan Rhodes _A good squad leader, young but with an excellent head on his shoulders._

Ship Type: R-9C Warhead

Status: Intact

Squad J: "Moon Shadow"

Commander: Theodore Stone

Ship Type: R-9E Midnight Eye

Status: Intact

Squad K: "Storm"

Commander: Annie Hark

Ship Type: R-13B Charon

Status: Intact

Module F: TP-02 POW Armor

Pilot: AI

Status: Intact

Module G: TP-02 POW Armor

Pilot: AI

Status: Intact

Module H: R-9AF Morning Glory

Pilot: AI

Status: Intact

Ship Name: "Nomad"

Type: Vanargand Cruiser

Captain: Amy Marshall

Crew: 425 (standard) 420 (current)

Fighter Compliment: 10 (2 Squadrons) 1 Module

Status: Suffered minor damage at Alpha Luyten

Squad E: "Steelwing"

Commander: Drake Nessin

Ship Type: R-9Abk Arrowhead –black-

Status: 2 fighters lost at Delta Vulpeculae _Need to train some replacement pilots ASAP, I can't keep sending out Nessin's unit undermanned._

Squad F: "Far Eye"

Commander: Jacob Masters

Ship Type: R-9D Shooting Star

Status: Intact

Module D: TP-02 POW Armor

Pilot: AI

Status: Destroyed outside Epsilon Comelopardalis

Ship Name: "Damocles"

Type: Vanargand Cruiser

Captain: Leo Cana (previous captain killed at Alpha Luyten)

Crew: 425(standard) 117 (current)

Fighter Compliment: 10 (2 Squadrons) 1 Module

Status: Heavily damaged at Alpha Luyten, currently being towed _The crew is doing the best that can to fix up the _Damocles _on their own, the sooner they can move under their own power, the better._

Squad G: "Heavy Nova "

Commander: Michelle Tollen

Ship Type: R-9B Strider

Status: Destroyed outside Epsilon Comelopardalis *Note* Captain Tollen was recovered from space by her brother before the retreat but died of her injuries three hours later.

Squad H: "Typhoon"

Commander: Arthur Tollen

Ship Type: R-9B Strider

Status: Destroyed outside Epsilon Comelopardalis *Note* Captain Tollen recovered his sister during the battle but was captured and killed by the Ur-Quan afterwards. _A good, loyal man...it's a shame the Ur-Quan captured him...but, he is at peace now._

Module E: R-9AF Morning Glory

Pilot: AI

Status: Destroyed outside Epsilon Comelopardalis _Need to be careful, if we lose the other R-9AF module, then gathering up scrap and mining asteroids for raw material is going to be inpossible!_

Ship Name: "Victory"

Type: Jormungand Transport

Captain: Ronald Archer

Crew: 250(standard)

Fighter Compliment: 10 (2 Squadrons)

Status: Destroyed outside Epsilon Comelopardalis _Losing the _Victory _was a huge blow, 20% of the emergency fleet reserves were on-board, not to mention 250 able-bodied crew. If they had survived then we wouldn't be towing any ships now._

Squad A: "Star Knight"

Commander: Natsumi Yamada

Ship Type: R-9A Arrowhead

Status: 3 ships lost outside Epsilon Comelopardalis, remaining 2 assigned to Gravity Diver Squad and lost at Delta Luyten

Squad B: "Star Seeker"

Commander: Ryan Jackson

Ship Type: R-9E Midnight Eye

Status: Destroyed at Epsilon Comelopardalis *Note* Made initial contact with the Ur-Quan. _If not for the early warning they gave, we'd all be dead now._

Ship Name: "Guardian"

Type: Jormungand Transport

Captain: Trevor Holt

Crew: 250 (standard) 250 (current)

Fighter Compliment: 10 (2 Squadrons)

Status: Suffered minor damage at Alpha Luyten, no crew loss

Squad C: "Gravity Diver"

Commander: Josephine Orion

Ship Type: R-9Abk Arrowhead –black-

Status: Destroyed at Alpha Luyten

Squad D: "Luminous"

Commander: Irene Summer

Ship Type: R-9D Shooting Star

Status: Intact

Ship Name: "Lifeline"

Type: Jormungand Transport

Captain: Derek Avers

Crew: 250 (standard) 98 (current)

Fighter Compliment: 3 Modules

Status: Heavily damaged at Alpha Luyten, currently being towed _We may have to move the remaining supplies to the _Guardian _and_ Lifeline _then break it down for scrap, I hope we don't. Having ALL the supplies on just two transports make me nervous._

Module A: TP-02 POW Armor

Pilot: AI

Status: Captured and destroyed at Delta Vulpeculae *Note* The VUX captured this unit with the intent of extracting information from the pilot but destroyed it when the AI erased itself and all on-board data. _Guess the VUX thought the POW's were manned, I can just imagine the frustration on their faces when they found a machine instead of a pilot!_

Module B: TP-02 POW Armor

Pilot: AI

Status: Intact

Module C: TP-02 POW Armor

Pilot: AI

Status: Intact

Ship Name: "Silmeria"

Type: Nidhogg Destroyer

Captain: Alicia Fiske

Crew: 300 (standard) 300 (current)

Status: Intact _A damn good captain, she may not have been at the front of the battle but she was always one step behind. I've never seen anyone command a Nidhogg Destroyer so well! I'll put her in for a commendation when we get home....IF we get home..._

Ship Name: "Hrist"

Nidhogg Destroyer

Captain: Edmond Zeras

Crew: 300 (standard) 162 (current) *Note* Life support failed and the surviving crew was dispersed among rest of the fleet

Status: Heavily Damaged at Delta Vulpeculae, currently being towed

Ship Name: "Raven"

Type: Nidhogg Destroyer

Captain: Lenneth Kala

Crew: 300 (standard) 295 (current)

Status: Suffered minor damage outside Epsilon Comelopardalis and Alpha Luyten _A number of the crew believe we should cut the _Raven_loose, but her stockpile of torpedoes was the only thing that stopped the VUX from chasing us this far. The _Raven_ will fly again even if I have to fix her myself._

Ship Name: "Talon"

Type: Nidhogg Destroyer

Captain: Felix Cameron

Crew: 300 (standard) 24 (current) *Note* Surviving crew dispersed among the rest of the fleet

Status: Destroyed outside Epsilon Comelopardalis *Note* The _Talon_was heavily damaged outside Epsilon Comelopardalis, Captain Cameron ordered the surviving crew to abandon ship then turned the _Talon_around and dove into the perusing Ur-Quan Dreadnought's, giving the fleet time to escape. _I don't think anyone will ever forget Captain Cameron's sacrifice. He was a good man, and a good friend. God rest his soul._

Mark leaned back in his chair, leaning his head back and half closed his eyes while his mind wandered in thought. _Three months since we arrived...in this...place... Hard to believe that our only concern back then was the Bydo. And yet in just three months time we've encountered life from other worlds! A historical moment to be sure, at least until Jackson sent in his final comm message stating that those same new lifeforms were tearing his squad to pieces. _He opened his eyes a little and looked down at the nearest of his crew then opened his mouth but shook his head and decided not to bother the man. Instead he tapped his console and the display changed, showing a map of their current location. They were out in the middle of a "dry patch" of space. Which was to say that there weren't any nearby stars that could be harboring dangerous alien life. (for clarification, they are just "North" of the Gorno cluster)

Three months prior, the fleet had been on a scouting mission to the Deneb system to search for any possible Bydo staging areas. Though it was slated as a scout mission the fleet was well armed and prepared to handle whatever they might encounter. In the past when scouting parties found the Bydo prepping for an invasion, that is to say, consuming ever natural resource in any given star system to create newer and deadlier weapons, the scouts would report the position and wait for a battle group to arrive. But too many times the Bydo had either detected the scouts and destroyed them before they could report, or finished their prep and departed for a new system, leaving the battle group to drop out of Sub-Space, into a dead system. High Command finally changed things and sent out "scouting groups" which were entire divisions, if they found the Bydo, they would report it then engage and destroy them. If the battle group failed to report in after a set time, High Command would assume they had been destroyed and would send a larger, more powerful fleet to hunt for the Bydo.

This time proved to be a false alram. Mark had heaved a sighof relief, this scouting mission was the longest flight out in the recorded history of space flight. And while they could easily fly twice the distance and back again, being so far from Earth and any sort of help, should anything happen, was not a pleasent thought. So, with a smile, he ordered the fleet to turn around and jump into Sub-Space. Then everything went batshit crazy.

An anomaly, some called it an eddy in Sub-Space, occurred just as the fleet entered sub-space. Everything seemed to...._ripple_, and flow together like....like....well...not like anything Mark had ever seen before. When it was over they weren't outside the Deneb system anymore and they couldn't re-enter Sub-Space for some reason. So, he ordered the Star Seeker squardon out to scan Epsilon Comelopardalis, the local star system, while the fleet get it's collective shit in gear. _Then Jackson radioed in, said that ships he'd never seen before, neither Hegemony or Bydo, were approaching. Big, green hulks with twin engine nacelles. I thought it was the beginning of something wonderful! A new alien race that might become future allies and possibly help us defeat the Bydo once and for all! Then Jackson screamed that they were firing on him... _

The fleet assembled quickly, launched out it's fighters and prepared to fight. _They caught our scouts by surprise and killed them, and we were gonna pay them back, oh, how we would...!_ A single flash of blood red light, and a large green ship, easily as big as the _Vale_ appeared; launching fighter pods and firing fusion blasts like they were going out of style. Every ship in the fleet opened up on it, wiping it out in seconds. _We thought we had won...we had avenged Jackson and his men...but then... _Another flash of red...another ship. Then another...and another.... Within seconds the black of space was banished by sickly red light as better than two dozen of the massive green ships appeared. The comm unit went off and an audio message played in a language none of the crew could understand. It sounded like a gurgling growl, deep and guttral....and angry. A moment later the voice came through again with the same deep growl but in English. 

_"Attention Interlopers, you are trespassing in Ur-Quan space. Your ships do not correspond to standard Hierarchy identification codes and you are therefore deemed, independent. Your transgretion shall not be forgiven, however, we are not entirely without mercy. If you surrender now, your deaths shall be swift."_

Mark never had time to formulate a response, the English spoken was difficult to understand, not because of who was speaking but rather because everyone in the Earth hegemony spoke Standard. And Standard, which most people who read science fiction would assume is English, was in fact not. It was an amalgamation of several languages that anyone could speak. However being born on the North American continent made English a language he grew up with but he hadn't spoken it in years so it took him almost thirty seconds to figure out what was said. By then the Ur-Quan, as they called themselves decided that the human ship's lack of response meant open defiance. The Dreadnoughts opened fire.

If not for the _Talon _none of them would have made it out alive. But even so, the Ur-Quan continued to give chase for nearly two weeks. The only thing that saved the Earth fleet was the arrival of better than thirty large, black ships which the Ur-Quan seemed to think more important. The Dreadnoughts broke off and attacked the black ships, ignoring Mark's fleet as it limped away at sub-light speeds. By the time that battle ended, the Earth fleet was too far away to be seen as a threat.

Their problems hadn't ended there, once imdiate presuit was over, Mark gave the order to head home at maximum speed, not knowing that ahead what lay ahead of them.


End file.
